was a closed corporation to the rising young tide of people
described in “Our Crowd.” Suddenly here burst forth some
bright young Jews who were upsetting all the old tenets of the
publishing business--and the most flamboyant of all certainly
was Liveright.

Q:

What about Alfred Knopf at this time?

Cerf:

Knopf had the one thing Liveright missed. Knopf had
class. Liveright was a showman. Knopf was a great, great--
and is still--publisher. Liveright was jealous as he could be
of him. Knopf was the fellow he wanted to beat. He didn't
care about these old fogies he was competing with. It was
Knopf he had his sights set on. By the same token Knopf hated
Liveright.

Q:

Everybody thought them in the same class.

Cerf:

That's it! Everybody said, “These are fresh young Jews.”
and Knopf didn't want to be in that class at all, so he resented
Liveright.

I'll never forget one afternoon Liveright called me down
to his office beside himself with joy. I said, “What coup have
you pulled off?”

He said, “I've just given a job to Alfred Knopf's brother!”

I said, “What are you talking about?”

Alfred Knopf had a step-brother named Edwin Knopf, who
was a young Hollywood character, writer and actor, and he had